Little Haven palliative care asks for more govt help

Gympie’s beloved, gold standard palliative care provider is in its own fight for life, after being let down by a state government funding offer so small the organisation fears it will have to close its books.

Little Haven business manager Sue Manton is calling on the state government to invest in the palliative health care of the Gympie region, and offer them a contract that is in line with the growing needs of the area.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Health Minister Shannon Fentiman have been called on to explain how they will replace end-of-life care in the Gympie region if Little Haven is starved of the funding it needs to keep up with the demands of a growing population.

Little Haven Palliative Care is a beloved institution across the Gympie region and a gold-standard organisation that has provided in-home palliative care to thousands of people in the past 20 years.

The organisation is funded by a combination of government grants, contracts and fundraising, but this year the contract offered by the state government was significantly below what was both expected and needed.

The Little Haven board wants to know why Queensland Health decided not to increase funding to Little Haven so it could meet the community’s growing palliative care needs.

Little Haven provides much needed end-of-life home care and bereavement services across the Gympie region, keeping families together and terminally ill people of all ages in their homes.

The 24/7 care the not-for-profit provides has set the standard in Qld and was recognised by the Productivity Commission Inquiry in 2018, as an exemplary palliative care service model.

Little Haven business manager Sue Manton has fought to keep the organisation funded for more than 20 years.

Little Haven Palliative Care business manager Sue Manton expressed deep concerns for home-care options should Little Haven close its doors as the state government has provided no reason as to why it has not invested in the growing need for the services in the Gympie community. Picture: Greg Miller

In 2019, they were offered a four-year funding contract from the state government and Ms Manton thought she was finally securing Little Haven’s services for the community.

The funding contract included 8000 occasions of service a year, totalling about $1 million each year, Ms Manton said.

In 2022, Little Haven tallied up 28,000 occasions of service, and project that number to keep rising as the region’s population increases.

Since Covid, Little Haven has watched the number of people they care for jump from 70 to 110 at any given time, she said.

“Working on our projections it would mean a million dollars out of pocket by the end of this financial year, because every year we've grown our service to meet the needs,” Ms Manton said.

“We thought we would get the opportunity to renegotiate and have a chat about what we do, because we take so many of admissions from Qld Health.

“And then when the contract came, it was just a crappy contract that was the same level of funding we had last year.”

She said she was shocked to be sent the contract renewal in mid-June with only two weeks to accept before the current contract ended.

Little Haven Market Place on Crescent Rd in Gympie sells donated second hand goods to raise funds for Little Haven’s Palliative Care services. Without increased state government investment matching the growth of the region, business manager Sue Manton said the health care provider would need to dial back its services.

Little Haven hopes Qld Health will come back with a contract sufficient to meet the community’s needs.

Ms Manton’s biggest concern is that without Little Haven, Gympie’s home-care choices will all but disappear.

“If we weren’t there to care for them they would have to come into hospital,” she said.

“What it means for the health system is that we‘ll be transferring about 28,000 occasions of service back onto their servers if they’re not prepared to fund us.”

There are only four aged care homes in Gympie, and apart from Little Haven, Blue Care and the Gympie Hospital’s two palliative care beds, end-of-life care goes beyond being a health demand in the region – it becomes a grave need.

The next option for care is going to hospital emergency – calling on ambulances, or driving more than 100km to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital at Birtinya.

Little Haven is asking for continued government investment that caters to the growth of the palliative care needs in the Gympie region.

Taking the funding without running at a loss would mean dialling back services, or making hard decisions over who they provide care to.

“For people who have been supporting us for years, we can’t just say, ‘No, we closed our books,’ or ‘we won’t do the 24/7 anymore, we’ll just do Monday to Friday’,” Ms Manton said.

It also makes economic sense and a cost analysis commissioned by Little Haven through the University of the Sunshine Coast showed “for every dollar they (state government) invest in Little Haven, it’s at least $2.50 saving to the health system,” she said.

“I just want the politicians who are actually responsible for this to answer the Gympie community about what better, more cost-effective and efficient service they’ve got in mind to replace them.”